First of all, if you have never thought about the need to keep an eye on your competition, consider this a reminder and first tip.  As a business owner it is always good to keep a close watch on things the competition is doing, such as promotions, price changes, new products, announcements or other various items.

If you are constantly checking out your SERPs (search engine ranking positions) like I am then you know who your main competitors are for certain keywords, but what about the industry you are in (in general)?  Are you keeping a close eye on the new information that is available online?  Here are some ideas for doing a better job watching the competition.

• Google BlogSearch - keep a close eye on your industry by finding the latest posts done by the people who own businesses in your industry.  Google BlogSearch does a good job of keeping the newest info in the top of the SERPs for its BlogSearch program.  You can learn more about your industry then you know by keeping a careful eye on your competitors.  You do not want them to gain the advantage with any new kind of "cutting edge" technology.  You want people that visit your site to know that you are also up to date with the latest and greatest information if they are price shopping you and your competitor (and compare the up to date industry news and info of the two sites).
• SERPH - This is a great place to find news that is brand new, and as they put it - "track the buzz in real time".  In many cases the info you find on SERPH has not even been indexed on Google yet.  You can use this tool to make sure you take care of any negative press that could be done about your business too.  I have used this site many times to see what people are blogging about with me, or my businesses and take care of what ever I need to before it becomes a problem, and gets indexed everywhere.
• Subscribe to competitions RSS - A great tool that your competitor gives you is sitting right on their site.  It is the subscription button to their RSS feed.  You can keep a close eye on what they are blogging about and any new press (or articles) that gets released.  Many businesses will include their press and articles on their blog first before sending it anywhere else.  So you will know of it as soon as its posted!

These should be enough to give you an amazing edge over the competition, and will be platforms for you learning other ideas and way to keep a close eye out.  You need to be doing something to keep up to date with your industry, and the way I look at it is there is no better place to do this then with the people you are going up against. 

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